Hey Guys RTO here, a top lane main, one tricking renekton to over 500lp in challenger.
So today we are trying out a new type of video where I give you general tips every toplaner
needs to know.
If this video is successful then we will turn this into a 12 video series broken down into
stages of the game where I go over 60 tips that you need to know to carry in the top
lane.
Number 1.
How to freeze the lane!
Why do we want to freeze?
Shouldn’t we be trying to push the tower down asap?
Although taking towers is one of the main points to win a game, we don’t always want
to be forcing that as soon as we begin laning phase.
Freezing a lane means to stop all minion push, balancing your minion wave with the enemies
- preferably in the small area between your tower and the river.
You kill the number of minions that your opponent kills, so the waves are even and can't push.There
are multiple reasons we want to freeze a lane; You force your opponent to overextend past
the river in order to last-hit minions.
This is one of the easiest ways to help set up a gank for your jungler.It keeps you safe
from getting ganked by the enemy jungler, since you should be right next to your tower.
This allows you to farm safely.
You can start a slow push, meaning multiple waves of your own minions start to build up,
which you can use to out-trade with minion aggro, or simply to hard push - which creates
map pressure.
Now we know why we want to freeze, but how do we do it? Start by counting the number of
minions in your and your opponents wave.
As your enemy pushes, you want to match the number of minions they kill, so you don’t
end up with a huge enemy wave crashing into your tower.
The goal of freezing, is to get the minion waves to meet in that small area between your
tower & river?
To do, so you clear all but the magic number of 3 caster minions at full HP and hold them
just outside tower range.
Once left behind, these extra minions actually hold your wave long enough for the new waves
to meet in this prime position in front of your tower.
To keep the wave here, you need to control the wave - this is done by either pushing
if the enemy pushes, or just last hitting minions, if that's what the enemy is doing.
Remember!
We need map pressure, and freezing the lane does not offer this, outside of a jungle gank,
where you successfully eliminate the enemy, and can hard push the lane, or use rift herald.
Number two!
How to use teleport!
Teleport is a very important part of top lane, and knowing how and when to use it, is imperative
to being successful.
There are multiple ways of utilizing teleport, so let’s go over them.
Ganking One of the easiest ways to use teleport, is
to hard push the top wave when your opponent is in base, and their teleport is on CD, or
they have taken ignite.
You can then recall back to base, run botlane to gank (no one expects a toplane gank!),
and then teleport back to top to save your tower!
Counterganking You see your botlane being towerdived, or
the enemy midlaner - or jungler - has initiated a gank.
You have reliable CC, or you are far enough ahead for your presence to win the fight.
You teleport to a ward placed in the brush, and turn the fight from a 2v3 into a 3v3.
You win the fight, and proceed to secure objectives such as botlane tower, or drake.
Splitpushing Your team is setting up around Baron, there
are wards in the pit, and in the enemy jungle.
You’re split pushing botlane uncontested, and the enemies start to collapse on your
team, 5v4.
You teleport behind the enemy, and flank them, turning the fight.
You proceed to kill Baron and win the game!
Splitpushing reversed You have successfully ace’d the enemy team
late game, and secured Baron.
You teleport to an already pushing lane, proceeding to take the base tower and inhibitor.
Returning to lane You’re left on sub 10% health, and need
to recall - but the enemy laner has crashed a minion wave into your tower!
Look at all that CS and XP, you can’t miss it!
You teleport to your tower, and manage to collect all them sweet minions.
Backdooring You’ve finished a fight and it’s 4v3,
the 3 enemies that are left are powerhousing it towards your base.
You know your 3 allies are strong enough to hold on, you teleport to a super minion wave
pushing into their base, and proceed to take the other open inhibitor, nexus turrets, or
the nexus itself!
Number 3.
How to play around enemy jungler ganks!
Top lane is sometimes a lonely island, no-one cares about you, your lane, your advantage,
your disadvantage - you can’t rely on your team at lower elo, you need to be able to
endure the 1v2 ganks when your jungler randomly decides to do raptors or golems instead of
counter-ganking.
You need to be aware on how to play around when the enemy jungler cares about his toplaner!
Tracking the jungler There are multiple prime times during early
game when you are at risk of being ganked, and you need to know these.
If a jungler is starting on his bottom side, it’s likely that he will path his way topside
by around 3 - 4 minutes - watch the map!
You can check his CS, and figure out how many jungle camps they have cleared - every camp
is worth 4 CS.
If your jungler is invading, you should hopefully have an idea of which camps have been cleared,
and when they will be respawning, and pathing towards you.
Come pre-season 10, Riot will be adding a jungle camp timer, making this a lot easier
to track.
Wards!
You need to know where to ward, based on how you are playing your lane.
If you’re aggressively pushing, the enemy jungler can easily come behind you through
your own brush.
They can come through the river, and specific junglers such as Zac and Kayn can jump over
walls, meaning they can come from enemy jungles.
You need to make informed decisions of where to place your wards, depending on the enemy
jungler and your own playstyle.
Minions If you're hard pushing to crash a huge wave
into the opponent's tower - especially before level 6 - then it's going to be extremely
difficult for the enemy jungler to gank you, due to minion aggro.
You can use wave management techniques to build up this wave, then crash it into the
opponent's tower, securing yourself a safe recall, while getting free plates on the enemy
tower.
Remember - you have to be willing to defend the wave if you're building it up.
Don't let the opponent thin it out for free!
This avoids turning your wave into 'giving the opponent a free freeze' - you must make
sure they get punished for thinning it out or stopping it right in front of their turret!
CS’ing Don’t go for CS when you think, or know
you’re going to get ganked!
You have no wards, the top of the map is in darkness, the midlaner and/or jungler are
missing - they aren’t heading bot where there are wards.
You step forward for that juicy cannon minion - oops, you’re dead.
IT’S NOT WORTH!
No one likes to give up CS, but keeping yourself alive and taking the small loss is always
better than feeding the opponents.
Number four!
How to carry when you're the only one ahead!
Top lane is arguably the hardest lane to play, especially in a solo queue scenario.
Like I said before, it’s a lonely lonely island.
As well as lack of help, you’ll tend to find that team morale is pretty fragile.
You need to hang in there when the flame war begins, and you need to keep your team from
falling apart.
You can only rely on yourself in solo queue, and having the ability to carry your team
to victory is a vital skill to have.
But how do you do that?
Champ Select Firstly, pick the champion you know you have
carry potential on, one that you’re comfortable with.
Secondly, think about what your team needs.
You can’t just pick Yasuo when your mid, jungle and botlane all decide they fancy playing
AD this game.
Thirdly, think about your match up - don’t pick a Yasuo into a Jayce, you’re going
to get wrecked early game, and if your team wants to be closing out early, you aren’t
going to have time to scale!
Play to your strengths You’re playing Shen, do you think the best
way to play him is to concentrate on split pushing the entire game?
Is it best to ignore your team?
Or is it going to be beneficial to notice when your team needs the fight turning?
A well timed Stand United can save an ally from certain death, while landing a 4 man
taunt, giving your team a wide berth to turn the fight in their favor.
Play around the map You’ve just recalled, you’re in base,
your team has engaged a fight at Baron.
Do you have teleport?
Is a minion wave crashing into the secondary botlane tower, while your team is on the cusp
of winning the teamfight?
Make a decision!
If you team needs you for that final push into a Baron take, and you’re confident
your aid will win the fight, go to them!
Losing Baron - and your team - is not worth that secondary tower!
Will your team win the fight without you?
Go to that secondary tower, hard push with the crashing minions, and the newly acquired
Baron buff you have! (clips?)
Map Pressure You’re ahead on Renekton in top, your teleport
is down, your team wants to take the infernal dragon, but they’re behind in lanes.
Use your lead to pressure the toplane tower, forcing multiple enemies to answer to you.
This gives your team breathing room to take that important objective, while you keep the
enemies occupied, maybe securing a 1v2 kill, escaping with your Slice and Dice - wasting
time - or at worst, losing your life for the important objective, securing a lead for your
team.
Roaming You have insane pressure toplane, you’ve
just taken the first outer turret.
Rift Herald is up, midlane is struggling in an unfavourable matchup.
Ping your jungler, ward the enemy jungle, take the Herald and go mid!
Use your lead to boost the other lanes, even up their gold disadvantage, or put yours further
ahead!
Swap lanes with botlane, you’ve put the enemy Teemo at 0/5, taken the first tower,
and you’re at least 2 levels ahead of the opposing botlane.
Let your ADC go top and freeze the wave, allowing them to free farm and recoup some of their
lost gold, while you defend the bottom outer tower - or even annihilate the opponents!
Number five!
How to split push effectively!
Split pushing is one of the core fundamentals of top lane, and every top laner should know
how, and when to do it.
As long as you can understand the basics of split pushing - then you can always pull off
a successful split push.
Split pushing is moving to an undefended lane, and applying pressure by pushing the minion
wave.
It’s generally associated with the later stages of the game, due to longer respawn
timers and larger item spikes.
Let’s talk about the best times to be splitpushing Your team can fight successfully without you,
meaning they can fend off any push attempts, or at least go even in death count.
Your team has decent wave clear, being able to keep the enemy team from pushing into their
base, while you are applying pressure to another lane.
You can push waves quickly and efficiently, you’re not going to be effective if you
have no AoE (think Ezreal!
Although please don’t play him top….)
You have good escape tools, such as Jax, Kled, Akali and so forth
You have teleport!
This is super important to be able to help your team out in times of need, such as a
Baron fight while you are botlane and you can turn the fight.
What do you need to do before you can successfully split push?
Ward!
Ward ward ward, it’s not a given your support will be good, let alone giving you any priority
on your side of the map.
You must have your own warding trinket and use it!
If you can’t see the enemy coming, they have the element of surprise and you will
most likely die!
Communication - you have to tell your team, whether it’s through a quick typed message,
or pings alone - low elo players generally don’t know how to play around a split pusher.
They need guidance of what to do, where to go, what objectives they should be taking
while you’re pressing the map, or distracting the enemy team.
Don’t ping you have and then not follow up, when your team expects you to turn a 4v5
into a 5v5!
I appreciate you guys taking the time to watch this short, educational video in my weekly
50 Tips series.
Please leave your feedback below, and remember to check out all of the educational content
available on this Academy channel, alongside my Mobafire guides to multiple top lane champions.
If you want to see full, high elo gameplay videos, then please head over to my RTO channel.
Dueces boys